The Utterly Depressing Swing Set
by itsanauthorthing
Summary: Little snippet from the Fault In Our Stars, except HiJacked.


**Best if listening to; "What You Wanted" by OneRepublic**

* * *

"I believe that you can tell a lot about a person not by their story but by how they tell it."

Hugo "Hiccup" Haddock stage two leukemia 46 percent chance of living at least five years.

Jackson "Jack" Overland stage three non-Hodgkin lymphoma 63 percent chance of living at least five years.

* * *

The sky was a dull gray the clouds were threatening rain, but anyone could see that it was an empty threat. I decided to call Hiccup because I was depressed and trying really hard to think positive thoughts. Like you're living with cancer not dying from it, it could be worse, the universe was kind enough to let me live for a few more years, and other such pleasant thoughts. Hiccup was the just about the only thing that could make me feel better. He picked up on the third ring.

"Hi," I said quietly.

"Frosty," he said in his usual sassy tone.

"Hi," I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Are you crying?" He sounded worried now.

"Sort of."

"Why?"

"It's just, I want you to go to Berk and visit your family but I also don't want to let you go without me. And I want to take up your offer and go to Amsterdam and meet our second favorite author. But this whole cancer thing is making travel arrangements hard, and the sky is so boring and dull and grey today. Also there's this old swing set my sister and I used to love, that's utterly depressing in every way possible."

"I want to see this utterly depressing swing set, I'll be over in ten minutes." And with that he hung up.

I stayed in the back yard because I didn't want to show mom how upset I was, I hardly ever cry and my mom would think there was something seriously wrong if she saw me like this, and I just couldn't bring myself to make her worry over nothing.

I could remember pushing my little sister on the swings, her screaming _higher higher higher _the whole time. We would used to try to grab the leaves hanging in front of the swings. Sometimes we would lay on our stomachs and pretend we were flying. Now it was just sitting there the ghosts of the past staring at me while the two swings sat still. I might have excepted the ghosts' invitation to swing if I was positive I wouldn't break it.

Hiccup walked up next to me. I turned my head he was wearing a long-sleeved green plaid button-down and khakis. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, "Hey," I whispered so my voice wouldn't crack.

He had quite a time making it to the ground. "Hey," he said when he finally got there. He looked straight ahead at the swing set. "I can see your point, that is one utterly depressing swing set."

I moved a little closer to him. "Thanks for coming over."

You realize that keeping your distance from me in no way lessens my affection for you."

"I know." But what else could I do?

"All efforts to protect me from you are pointless, it's too late."

"Don't say that." I said pleading with him now.

"It is, I'm invested in you now, completely." He wasn't invested in me as much as I was invested in him.

"Why do you even like me?"

"Why do you like me?" He countered.

There were many reasons as to why I liked Hugo Haddock, his eyes for example, his caring personality, how smart he was. I decided not to answer.

He didn't answer either, he just put his hand over mine, looking at the swing set again he said: "We have to do something about that frigging swing set, it's ninety-two percent of the problem, by my calculation."

We went inside after a few minutes, sitting on the couch the laptop resting half on his leg and half on mine. He loaded a web site where you could give away stuff for free, together we wrote the add.

"Headline?" I asked.

"'Swing Set Needs Home,'" Hiccup recommended.

"'Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home,'" I suggested.

"'Lonely, Vaguely Pedophilic Swing Set Seeks the Butts of Children,'" He offered.

"That's why," I said quietly.

"What?"

"That's why I like you. It's rare to find a cute boy who creates an adjectival version of the word _pedophile. _You are completely revolutionary, a novelty."

He blushed. "And that's why I like you, most people wouldn't even know that pedophilic isn't even a word, or use the word _adjectival _correctly in a sentence. _You_ are unparalleled."

* * *

I'm not continuing this, just so you know. Sorry.


End file.
